We’ve planned over 2,500 events and no two events are ever alike. Events come in all types, each with a specific intent. This is one of our favorite aspects of event planning – customizing your event to create an unforgettable experience for your attendees.
Continue reading “3 Ways We Planned a Memorable Global Sales Event”
Today is a special day at Miller Tanner Associates as it’s our 20th Anniversary in business. We are excited to share with you this momentous milestone!
We couldn’t celebrate this day without extending our appreciation to those who have supported us along the way. We thank our clients, vendors, and the Miller Tanner Global Team, both past and present, for helping us achieve 20 years in business.
To our clients, we are so grateful to have the opportunity to be of service to your company while planning your worldwide events and meetings. To our vendors, we appreciate your partnerships that have helped us to provide excellence in event services across the globe. And to our Miller Tanner Global Team, we thank you for your keen customer focus, emphasis on quality and results-oriented solutions that have gotten our company to where we are today.
Continue reading “Miller Tanner Associates Celebrates Its 20th Anniversary!”
Here are a few important reasons to work with the Miller Tanner Team when planning your next event:
Continue reading “The Miller Tanner Difference”
When I think about what separates Miller Tanner Associates from others in the events management industry, I believe it’s our relentless drive to provide a memorable experience – one that is highly personalized and supported by expert execution. This drive and commitment to excellence have allowed Miller Tanner to become a trusted partner to many through the years.
Exceptional execution of complex events depends on strong teams at every stage of an event. Our team, the Technology Services Group, primarily works behind the scenes. In addition to keeping all of our technology running and secure, we get the opportunity to design and build new applications that impact our company and many of our clients.
I want to share what the Technology Services Team is developing to prepare for the future of service.
Mobile Focus: We have adopted a mobile-focused attitude where nothing gets developed without a mobile strategy. To that end, we’ve completely re-designed our On-Demand Trainer / Learning Management System (ODT/LMS) for full functionality within a mobile browser. I’m super excited about this update and can’t wait for you to see it!
Intuitive Design: It isn’t just mobile getting all the attention, though. We’re refreshing everything. You’ll notice the look and feel, starting with our ODT/LMS product, which will be incorporated across the company and our other service offerings. Beyond simple consistency, we’re focused on designing services that look great and are easy to use.
Efficiency: In addition to new designs, we’re currently under development with a product that will literally change how we do business. Our Event Planner product is built to integrate the many moving parts (think everything from transportation to meal preference) that are required to make an event successful. In addition to this core functionality, we’re exploring ways to make everything from event pricing to expense reimbursements more efficient. It’s going to be huge – and we’re on track to deliver later this year.
Finally, a promise. It’s easy to get excited about everything ‘new’, but what’s gotten MTA to this point isn’t just technology. It’s the people that deliver excellent service. While we have all sorts of great ideas on how to make things better, we’ll never lose sight of what’s most important and how we got to where we are today – thanks to YOU, our valued clients and your trust in our company.
We’ve got some of the latest travel news for you on the blog today in our Travel Roundup from around the world.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will be enforcing states to comply with the Real ID Act. Find out how this could impact your travel in 9 states. Read more.
TSA is making some changes to its PreCheck program. To keep PreCheck lines short, the TSA is getting strict about who can use them. Find out what you need to know to take advantage of this program. Read more.
In pre-planning for MTA events, our team puts in place our traditional emergency backup plans to address security, weather and any unforeseen event that might occur. Unfortunately, a weather emergency occurred at a recent event leaving a number of meeting participants stranded, resulting in a three-hour drive for the meeting participants. Fortunately, because we had our emergency weather plan in place, we were able to easily transfer all meeting participants without further delay or worry. Read more.
In an effort to attract more visitors to Argentina, an executive order has been put in place to reimburse foreign tourists on all value-added tax paid on hotel services. This is another great reason to consider Argentina for your next meeting or event. Read more.
Facial, iris and/or fingerprint recognition technologies will soon replace passports, making paper travel documents a thing of the past for Australia airports. Read more.
U. S. Travelers may soon need a visa to visit France, Italy, Spain, or any of the 28 European Union countries. Read more.
With incentive travel being a top motivator for the workforce, it’s quickly making a comeback. Read more.
And be sure you check out our business travel tips from our Miller Tanner travel experts.
News Sources:
One of the first steps in booking your event is finding the perfect venue. Whether you are looking for 5-star accommodations for your company’s incentive trip, a conference room large enough to host hundreds of attendees for a global sales meeting, or a venue in the heart of a bustling, desirable European city, in some cases the right venue can make or break your event.
We understand that venue decisions often rely upon the approval process of multiple players, but sometimes the delay in the decisions can really hurt the selection process. Continue reading “How to Secure the Best Venue for Your Event”
As event planners, we’ve orchestrated hundreds of events on 6 continents. From the beaches of Goa, India to the temple ruins in Athens, we’ve seen the world. We know some of the best event destination hotspots around the globe. What’s most important to us as event planners is the quality of the event attendees’ experience. We’ve transported attendees via gondola down winding canals in Venice and experienced the rich history of some of the oldest cities and remarkable ruins in the world. We’ve captured the essence of a city’s culture by engaging the attendees’ senses through the vibrant music, renowned sights, and culinary experiences that create memories for a lifetime. This is our job as global event planners. And we love it!
Continue reading “Top Global Event Destinations The GXT Loves”
It’s a new year! And that means it’s the perfect time to set new company goals for your internal teams – whether it’s to launch new products, energize your employees, or generate brand awareness within various departments.
From an events industry perspective with over 19 years of event planning experience, Miller Tanner offers three innovative ways to boost your company’s brand internally. Get the new year started in the right direction and accomplish those 2017 goals by implementing a strategy that includes one of these types of corporate events:
What is it? A Global Sales Meeting is an excellent opportunity for a corporation to gather their business development teams from across the world in one location to kick off the year.
Benefits: This type of meeting provides the opportunity to share updates from the executives, discuss overall strategy and team goals, participate in training, create bonds over team building activities, inspire through guest speakers, and give recognition through awards ceremonies. The possibilities and benefits are endless, and these meetings provide a great platform for a team’s success.
How an event planner can help: MTA’s Global Events Team can be involved in every step of the way and in every detail starting with selecting the location, creating a theme, choosing specialty gifts, and managing all registration, transportation, accommodations, and special activities. Or we can provide an “à la carte” option tailoring our expertise where it’s most needed. One of the many benefits of hiring a corporate event planner – aside from our vast expertise, we are flexible and can customize our involvement for each client and event to create the best partnership.
What is it? A Product Launch can vary across the board on the type of event and the type of attendees – some might be a celebration and exposure for new customers, while others might be an educational/training launch for sales teams to begin to sell the company’s new product. A product launch provides a great opportunity for your company to educate, strategize and create the best theme and brand representation.
Benefits: Your employees are one of your best assets when it comes to promoting your product. “Each and every one of your employees is a brand ambassador,” according to Burton Goldfield, President, and CEO of TriNet. When you create an emotional connection with your product or brand internally among your employees, they are far more likely to extend that brand enthusiasm and connection outside of your company to your clients and customers. Selling the brand internally can lead to a more successful public product launch.
How an event planner can help: Every detail can make a big impact and an event of this magnitude should be left to the professional planners to make sure it is seamless. MTA loves to have a seat at the table to use our creativity and connections to contribute to the strategy, planning and success.
What is it? A President’s Club event rewards top performers within an organization the opportunity to take part in a trip of a lifetime. These incentive trips bring the wow factor! Sometimes this is a trip strictly to celebrate and relax, other times this is an opportunity for winners to talk strategy and best practices with the executives of their organization.
Benefits: Are you wanting to engage and motivate your employees? Do you desire to attract and retain staff? Is your goal to recognize your top performers? Then incentive travel or a President’s Club might just be your ticket. Even studies suggest that incentive travel proves to be an effective way to engage employees. By investing in your top employees, they are happier, more productive, and loyal to your company. In fact, in reference to a recent article by SmartCEO.com, studies not only support increased productivity and sales, brand recognition and larger profits but also team bonding and company loyalty.
How an event planner can help: Depending upon your goals, budget, and desires for the incentive trip, MTA’s proposals team sources the most unique locations and properties for a memorable trip for your team all within your budget. A President’s Club event is a perfect example of where we at MTA can sweat the small stuff so our client can put their focus where needed.
Investing in your internal team can yield a greater ROI for your company. Contact us today to find out how you can increase your brand awareness and brand loyalty among your internal team whether through incentive travel, a global sales meeting, a product launch or any other types of events.
Happy New Year! 2017 is off to a fantastic start at Miller Tanner Associates (MTA) and we are looking forward to seeing you and your team at a global event very, very soon! Before we launch into what is new and exciting for the coming year, let’s pause and look back at some of the exciting trends of 2016!
While 2016 certainly had its share of popular event city usage, (hello again – Chicago, Buenos Aires, Frankfurt, Sydney!) the real trend of the year was the road less traveled. By that, we mean all the meeting cities that are less frequently used by the events industry. When was the last time you hosted an event in – Fukuoka, Japan or Siofok, Hungary or Tallinn, Estonia or Taoyuan, Taiwan? These are just a few of the locations, off the beaten path, that our Global Events Team supported for our clients in the past year. With experienced team members located on six continents and fluent in more languages than we can count, there is nowhere in the world we cannot successfully support your global events.
As competition in the events space continues to rise, from mom & pop operations to behemoth global entities, Miller Tanner Associates strives to find ways to distinguish our unique, boutique brand in the marketplace. One way in which we continue to differentiate ourselves is through our investment in the professional development of our team members. Our goal is to have the largest percentage of Certified Meeting Professionals (CMPs) you can find on any team, anywhere. Since we initiated our ground-breaking program in 2013, we have successfully supported nearly 50% of our Global Service Directors and Global Event Directors in achieving this status with more to come next year! If you haven’t yet, meet our amazing CMPs here.
While we have always approached our work with clients as a partnership, 2016 ushered in a shift in the depth of those relationships. No longer were the questions centered around cost savings/management or recommendations around the “best” way to approach a global, face-to-face meeting series. Instead, the new questions that emerged were:
By investing time in using the expertise of the MTA team, our clients are now able to draw from the best of what we employ across all the industries that we support, as well as partner with them to create the innovation that will lead to greater, successful outcomes for years to come. And of course, we are still saving LOTS of money with our cost savings strategies and management!
Having looked back at 2016, let’s now look to 2017…
We have some exciting news to share – as of January 1st, the team formerly known as MTA Global Operations has been officially rebranded as the MTA Global Events Team!
When our doors opened in 1997, we offered one product – Clinical Investigator Meetings. Over the past 19 years, our client service offerings have expanded to include: Virtual and Hybrid Events, Production Services, Audience Response Systems, a Mobile Device Event App, an On-Demand Trainer/Learning Management System (ODT/LMS) and events for commercial teams of all industries. With that expansion, the title of Global Operations has lost its relevancy, as we now “operate” MANY products and services in different divisions of MTA.
Our decision to rebrand as Global Events more accurately reflects the support that we provide to our clients on their live, face-to-face programs – from a 12-person ad board to a complicated incentive trip and every event type in between. “Event” is a universal word that encompasses all that our global team can provide to the clients, programs, and industries that we support.
In honor of this rebranding, you’ll see some of our team members’ job titles shift, for example, our Global Conference Directors will now be Global Event Directors. However, have no fear, we may have new job titles, but you can expect the same world-renowned customer service on each and every event!
We look forward to 2017 being our most successful year yet and to meeting you on the road around the globe…perhaps one less traveled?
Whether it’s a sales meeting, a product launch, or a clinical investigator meeting, let our Global Events Team guide you through a successful event. Contact us today!
The team at Miller Tanner Associates wishes you a happy and healthy holiday season!
